Can I limit messages to a recent time period?
I have thousands of emails in my Thunderbird folders on my computer. I am now installing TBird on my new laptop but don't want years of emails downloaded to my new computer. Is there a way to limit the downloads (I set mine to download automatically to keep copies on my computer). I'd be thrilled if I could set up all my email accounts in TBird to only download by date, even if it is this year. Is that possible? Thanks, Bob
Chosen solution
If you have POP mail account and choose to leave a copy on the server:
Logon to webmail account using a browser and move all older mail out of Inbox into other folders. Then when you create new pop mail account on new computer, it will only download whatever is in the server Inbox.
If you have IMAP mail account, you see a remote view of the server folders which you subscribe to see. All emails are stored on the server. You can set up new imap mail account on new computer, but make a change in the Account Settings to only download recent x emails.
'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Synchronisation & Storage' for the imap mail account or 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Account Settings' > 'Synchronisation & Storage' for the imap mail account
- Select: 'Keep messages for this account on this computer'
- Select: 'Synchronise the most recent xx days'
- click on OK
All Replies (4)
Explain to me how you have it setup? Is it a IMAP account?
By moving your emails to a Local Folder they are (normally) deleted from server when you "Expunge" or manually compact the inbox.
If on the other hand you created lots of folders on the server and moved your mail to them, chances are they will be downloaded ones you subscribe to those folders. For best performance keep your inbox small and compacted.
Gnospen said
Explain to me how you have it setup? Is it a IMAP account? By moving your emails to a Local Folder they are (normally) deleted from server when you "Expunge" or manually compact the inbox. If on the other hand you created lots of folders on the server and moved your mail to them, chances are they will be downloaded ones you subscribe to those folders. For best performance keep your inbox small and compacted.
I have both. Most of my email is coming in as gmail but I have several that are outlook accounts (not the software) under live.com. I use different email addresses for different reasons. On the servers, I have not established any additional folders. From what I glean from your message, maybe I need to go on the server for each email and create folders, like 2010, 2011 etc. and move all of them out of the inbox. I just am not sure if my TBird software will download them also or if it will just go to the inbox for anything still there. Please let me know if creating folders by year will stop them from downloading or if TBird will create new local folders and download the thousands of emails on the server. I have TBird set to leave a copy on the server just in case I have computer problems or need access from my cell phone. Thank you very much for your help. Bob
Chosen Solution
If you have POP mail account and choose to leave a copy on the server:
Logon to webmail account using a browser and move all older mail out of Inbox into other folders. Then when you create new pop mail account on new computer, it will only download whatever is in the server Inbox.
If you have IMAP mail account, you see a remote view of the server folders which you subscribe to see. All emails are stored on the server. You can set up new imap mail account on new computer, but make a change in the Account Settings to only download recent x emails.
'Tools' > 'Account Settings' > 'Synchronisation & Storage' for the imap mail account or 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Account Settings' > 'Synchronisation & Storage' for the imap mail account
- Select: 'Keep messages for this account on this computer'
- Select: 'Synchronise the most recent xx days'
- click on OK
Thank you very much!